I have done nothing of the kind.” Van Buren looked at his watch. “I’m afraid that our competitor with the rakish name is going to be late. The time set was ten-thirty; it now lacks three minutes of the half-hour.
The private door opened, and at a command from the frantic secretary they both arose eagerly and went inside. Cyrus Girard was standing behind his desk waiting for them, watch in hand.
“Hello!” he exclaimed in surprise. “Where’s Jones?”
Parrish and Van Buren exchanged a smile. If Jones were snagged somewhere so much the better.
“I beg your pardon, sir,” spoke up the secretary, who had been lingering near the door; “Mr. Jones is in Chicago.”
“What’s he doing there?” demanded Cyrus Girard in astonishment.
“He went out to handle the matter of those silver shipments. There wasn’t anyone else who knew much about it, and Mr. Galt thought——”
“Never mind what Mr. Galt thought,” broke in Girard impatiently. “Mr. Jones is no longer employed by this concern. When he gets back from Chicago pay him off and let him go.” He nodded curtly. “That’s all.”
The secretary bowed and went out. Girard turned to Parrish and Van Buren with an angry light in his eyes.
“Well, that finishes him,” he said determinedly. “Any young man who won’t even attempt to obey my orders doesn’t deserve a good chance.” He sat down and began drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair.
“All right, Parrish, let’s hear what you’ve been doing with your leisure hours.”
Parrish smiled ingratiatingly.
“Mr. Girard,” he began, “I’ve had a bully time. I’ve been traveling.”
“Traveling where? The Adirondacks? Canada?”
“No, sir. I’ve been to Europe.”
Cyrus Girard sat up.
“I spent five days going over and five days coming back. That left me two days in London and a run over to Paris by aeroplane to spend the night. I saw Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the Louvre, and spent an afternoon at Versailles. On the boat I kept in wonderful condition—swam, played deck tennis, walked five miles every day, met some interesting people and found time to read. I came back after the greatest two weeks of my life, feeling fine and knowing more about my own country since I had something to compare it with. That, sir, is how I spent my leisure time and that’s how I intend to spend my leisure time after I’m retired.”
Girard leaned back thoughtfully in his chair.
“Well, Parrish, that isn’t half-bad,” he said. “I don’t know but what the idea appeals to me—take a run over there for the sea voyage and a glimpse of the London Stock Ex—— I mean the Tower of London. Yes, sir, you’ve put an idea in my head.” He turned to the other young man, who during this recital had been shifting uneasily in his chair. “Now, Van Buren, let’s hear how you took your ease.”
“I thought over the travel idea,” burst out Van Buren excitedly, “and I decided against it. A man of sixty doesn’t want to spend his time running back and forth between the capitals of Europe. It might fill up a year or so, but that’s all. No, sir, the main thing is to have some strong interest—and especially one that’ll be for the public good, because when a man gets along in years he wants to feel that he’s leaving the world better for having lived in it. So I worked out a plan—it’s for a historical and archeological endowment center, a thing that’d change the whole face of public education, a thing that any man would be interested in giving his time and money to. I’ve spent my whole two weeks working out the plan in detail, and let me tell you it’d be nothing but play work—just suited to the last years of an active man’s life. It’s been fascinating, Mr. Girard. I’ve learned more from doing it than I ever knew before—and I don’t think I ever had a happier two weeks in my life.”
When he had finished, Cyrus Girard nodded his head up and down many times in an approving and yet somehow dissatisfied way.
“Found an institute, eh?” he muttered aloud. “Well, I’ve always thought that maybe I’d do that someday—but I never figured on running it myself. My talents aren’t much in that line. Still, it’s certainly worth thinking over.”
He got restlessly to his feet and began walking up and down the carpet, the dissatisfied expression deepening on his face. Several times he took out his watch and looked at it as if hoping that perhaps Jones had not gone to Chicago after all, but would appear in a few moments with a plan nearer his heart.
“What’s the matter with me?” he said to himself unhappily. “When I say a thing I’m used to going through with it. I must be getting old.”
Try as he might, however, he found himself unable to decide. Several times he stopped in his walk and fixed his glance first on one and then on the other of the two young men, trying to pick out some attractive characteristic to which he could cling and make his choice. But after several of these glances their faces seemed to blur together and he couldn’t tell one from the other. They were twins who had told him the same story—of carrying the stock exchange by aeroplane to London and making it into a moving-picture show.
“I’m sorry, boys,” he said haltingly. “I promised I’d decide this morning, and I will, but it means a whole lot to me and you’ll have to give me a little time.”
They both nodded, fixing their glances on the carpet to avoid encountering his distraught eyes.
Suddenly he stopped by the table and picking up the telephone called the general manager’s office.
“Say, Galt,” he shouted into the mouthpiece, “you sure you sent Jones to Chicago?”
“Positive,” said a voice on the other end. “He came in here couple of days ago and said he was half-crazy for something to do. I told him it was against orders, but he said he was out of the competition anyhow—and we needed somebody who was competent to handle that silver. So I——”
“Well, you shouldn’t have done it, see? I wanted to talk to him about something, and you shouldn’t have done it.”
Clack! He hung up the receiver and resumed his endless pacing up and down the floor. Confound Jones, he thought. Most ungrateful thing he ever heard of after he’d gone to all this trouble for his father’s sake. Outrageous! His mind went off on a tangent and he began to wonder whether Jones would handle that business out in Chicago. It was a complicated situation—but then, Jones was a trustworthy fellow. They were all trustworthy fellows. That was the whole trouble.
Again he picked up the telephone. He would call Lola; he felt vaguely that if she wanted to she could help him. The personal element had eluded him here; her opinion would be better than his own.
“I have to ask your pardon, boys,” he said unhappily; “I didn’t mean there to be all this fuss and delay. But it almost breaks my heart when I think of handing this shop over to anybody at all, and when I try to decide, it all gets dark in my mind.” He hesitated. “Have either one of you asked my daughter to marry him?”
“I did,” said Parrish, “three weeks ago.”
“So did I,” confessed Van Buren; “and I still have hopes that she’ll change her mind.”
Girard wondered if Jones had asked her also. Probably not; he never did anything he was expected to do. He even had the wrong name.
The phone in his hand rang shrilly and with an automatic gesture he picked up the receiver.
“Chicago calling, Mr. Girard.”
“I don’t want to talk to anybody.”
“It’s personal. It’s Mr. Jones.”
“All right,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “Put him on.”
A